Why the Question Over How to Regulate Perps Has Turned Into a Fight
Unchained | Sep 04 2026 | 00:32:20
The CME is suing its own regulator over how perps get classified, and the ruling decides who in the US can trade them. Three lawyers make the case for futures over swaps.
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The CME is suing its own regulator. At stake is a single word: is a perpetual futures contract a swap, locked to institutional trading desks, or a future, open to any retail trader in the US?
Cathy Yoon, General Counsel at Temporal, Tiffany J. Smith, Partner at WilmerHale, and Jake Chervinsky, CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center, join Laura Shin at the Real World Assets Summit to make the case for futures. The CME was invited onto the panel to argue its side, but Yoon called their last-minute decision to bow out as "cowardice."
They dig into the CFTC's recent approval of true perpetual futures for Coinbase and Kalshi, the running jurisdictional split between the CFTC and SEC, and Bloomberg's report that Hyperliquid is in talks to come onshore through Kraken's Bitnomial.
Chervinsky argues Hyperliquid isn't an exchange at all, just neutral infrastructure any exchange could use.
Yoon closes with a warning: most of Capitol Hill, she says, still doesn't understand there's a whole world running onchain.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Cathy Yoon - General Counsel of Temporal
Tiffany J. Smith - Partner at WilmerHale and Co-Chair of its Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Working Group
Jake Chervinsky - CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center
Timestamps
⚖️ 02:24 Why the CME is suing the CFTC over classifying perps as futures or swaps
🌍 13:00 Why RWA perps overtook crypto perps, and who ends up regulating them
📣 18:03 1inch: See how Aqua's shared liquidity platform puts idle capital to work at http://unchainedcrypto.com/go/1inch-yt
🌐 20:42 Is Hyperliquid an exchange or neutral infrastructure? Jake makes his case
🏛️ 26:10 If you were the regulator: how each panelist would design fair rules for perps
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
========================================================
Thank you to our sponsor!
Visit 1inch.com to swap tokenized securities, crypto and more. Simple. Secure. Self-custodial. Whatever asset you’re buying - swap it at 1inch.com
========================================================
The CME is suing its own regulator. At stake is a single word: is a perpetual futures contract a swap, locked to institutional trading desks, or a future, open to any retail trader in the US?
Cathy Yoon, General Counsel at Temporal, Tiffany J. Smith, Partner at WilmerHale, and Jake Chervinsky, CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center, join Laura Shin at the Real World Assets Summit to make the case for futures. The CME was invited onto the panel to argue its side, but Yoon called their last-minute decision to bow out as "cowardice."
They dig into the CFTC's recent approval of true perpetual futures for Coinbase and Kalshi, the running jurisdictional split between the CFTC and SEC, and Bloomberg's report that Hyperliquid is in talks to come onshore through Kraken's Bitnomial.
Chervinsky argues Hyperliquid isn't an exchange at all, just neutral infrastructure any exchange could use.
Yoon closes with a warning: most of Capitol Hill, she says, still doesn't understand there's a whole world running onchain.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Cathy Yoon - General Counsel of Temporal
Tiffany J. Smith - Partner at WilmerHale and Co-Chair of its Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Working Group
Jake Chervinsky - CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center
Timestamps
⚖️ 02:24 Why the CME is suing the CFTC over classifying perps as futures or swaps
🌍 13:00 Why RWA perps overtook crypto perps, and who ends up regulating them
📣 18:03 1inch: See how Aqua's shared liquidity platform puts idle capital to work at http://unchainedcrypto.com/go/1inch-yt
🌐 20:42 Is Hyperliquid an exchange or neutral infrastructure? Jake makes his case
🏛️ 26:10 If you were the regulator: how each panelist would design fair rules for perps
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices